The Bullion Robbers
The Gold Robbers was a comic strip story which was first published in the TV Express Weekly first published in TV Express issue 338 (22 Apr 1961) to issue 344 (3 Jun 1961). The strip, published in colour, was the second Biggles comic to be drawn by Mike Western for TV Express after he had taken over the series from Ron Embleton. A French translation of the story was later carried in issue 35 of the comic magazine Rin Tin Tin published by SAGE in January 1963 under the title Le gang de l'or (The gang of the gold). In 2002, Belgian publisher Miklo reissued this and several other Biggles comic stories as an album entitled Biggles contre le Dr Zanchu, part of its Biggles Heritage series. Here the story was given the title Biggles et le gang de l'or. The original strips on TV Express did not carry a story title. The Miklo compilation on its bibliography on the last page rendered the English title as Biggles and the North Africa Gang although it is not clear how this was arrived at. Between 2007-2010, Express Publications published compilations of various TV Express Biggles stories in three volumes each of a very limited run of only 30 copies. Here the story was given the title The Bullion Robbers. In a third volume there is a story The Gold Robbers which appears to be the same story. The first available English title, The Bullion Robbers, is used as the title for this article.This French webpage contains good information about the TV Express Comics. Like the previous story in the TV Express series, The Galilean Chalice, The Bullion Robbers is also a short story. Each issue of the magazine carried only one page and the entire story is told in 7 pages. Synopsis On their way to Highbury for a football game, Biggles, Ginger and Bertie witness an armed robbery of a load of gold from an armoured truck. Plot (Click on expand to read) Biggles, Ginger and Bertie are on their way to a football game at Highbury when they witness a robbery. An armoured truck has been hijacked and the robbers are loading it into a large furniture lorry. Biggles and Bertie give chase but are run off the road by Horace, the leader of the gang, who is driving a Rolls-Royce in support. Back at Scotland Yard, Raymond tells the police had found the vehicles at a disused airport. The observer corps report an unidentified Dakota heading south towards the continent. The loot, it turns out, is a million pounds sterling of gold. Biggles surmises (rather hastily it would appear) that the robbers, who have just would not stop in Europe. They would want a remote, unpopulated region, and that would mean North Africa. Biggles and co. head for North Africa in three Mosquitoes and set up a base at the French airbase at Ghadames. A protracted search fails to find any sign of the Dakota or the airfield which the robbers must be using. Then they get news that there has been another robbery--of jewels--in Paris. Again the gang took off in a Dakota heading south. Biggles and co. take off again and patrol the Mediterranean coast but fail to intercept the robbers. Raymond is about to recall the Air Police crew to London, believing that Biggles is on a false trail but then a man staggers into Ghadames. He is Jenkins, a petroleum engineer. He and his colleagues had been prospecting for oil in the desert and had found what they thought was an abandoned airfield. Approaching it, some men had opened fire on them and killed most of them. Jenkins survived and made it back to Ghadames on foot. He estimates the place to be about 80 miles to the south. A sandstorm is brewing but now that Biggles knows the location of the robbers, he won't let the weather stop him. He tells the others to wait while he scouts the place alone. Overhead the airstrip, he spots the Dakota on its take-off run and he shoots at it to prevent it getting away. The robbers to abandon the burning aircraft and it explodes fire before they can unload the jewels and gold. It looks like a success but the sandstorm is now at full blast and Biggles' engines choke and he crashes. At Ghadames, Ginger is unable to raise Biggles on the radio and wants to take off to search for him but Bertie advises him to wait until the storm abates. The two then reach the robbers' airfield. They spot the wreckage of Biggles' Mosquito and land, hoping to find their friend. The airstrip looks deserted, but not quite. The robbers appear, fully armed. They had already taken Biggles prisoner and been hiding in a foxhole in the ground. The robbers proceed to load the gold and jewels (presumably they had salvaged them from the wreck of the Dakota) into the Mosquitoes and take off, leaving one of the gang, Jack, behind. Jack angrily shots at the departing aircraft but they turn around and strafe the airfield. Biggles and co. take cover but Bertie says the gang cannot get far, they would have to come back to land soon. Biggles is puzzled but Bertie is right. As soon as the Mosquitoes land, the Air Police crew charge forward and take the robbers prisoner as they climb out of the aircraft. How did that happen? Bertie explains. As the Dakota had been destroyed, their Mosquitoes would be the robbers' only means of escape. Bertie had therefore taken the precaution of having their tanks emptied at Ghadames, leaving just enough for them to get to the airfield of the robbers. But how are they to get back? Bertie has that covered also. He has arranged for the French Air Force to pick them up. And they soon arrive, a Comet escorted by a pair of Dassault Mysteres! Characters The Special Air Police *Air Commodore Raymond *Biggles *Ginger Hebblethwaite *Bertie Lissie Others *Horace *Various members of the gang **Harry **Larry **Jack Aircraft *de Havilland Mosquito *Douglas DC-3 *de Havilland Comet *Dassault Mystère Places Visited *London *Ghadames, Libya Research notes Chronology The appearance of the Comet (the wing tanks show it is a Comet 4) places the events of the story after 1958. Illustrations Editions References and external links Category:Derivative works